Seahawks replace injured Sidney Rice with Ricardo Lockette

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The Seahawks on Wednesday announced signing wide receiver Ricardo Lockette from the practice squad to replace the injured Sidney Rice, who was placed on injured reserve.

Lockette, 23, is a familiar face in Seattle. The Hawks signed him in 2011 as an undrafted rookie free agent out of Fort Valley State in Fort Valley, Ga., though he only appeared in the team’s final two games. Seahawks fans may best remember Lockette for catching a clutch, 61-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tarvaris Jackson on Jan. 1, 2012, to force overtime at Arizona, though the Cardinals won 20-23 on an overtime field goal.

Ricardo Lockette in his 2011 Seahawks mugshot. (NFL photo)

Head coach Pete Carroll on Wednesday said Lockette is a “great, high-potential guy with great range and great speed.”

He didn’t make the team in 2012 and, after a few weeks on Seattle’s practice squad, signed with the rival San Francisco 49ers and joined their practice squad. This past March, Niners head coach Jim Harbaugh said “there is something special there” about Lockette, but the receiver was cut again in August when San Fran signed another former Seahawk, QB Seneca Wallace.

Lockette joined the Chicago Bears practice squad in September and was released on Oct. 21. The Seahawks didn’t waste any time bringing him back to the team’s headquarters in Renton, signing him to the practice squad the next day.

Now Lockette finds himself on the active roster after Rice’s season-ending knee injury — at least until the pending return of Percy Harvin. As we reported Tuesday, Rice suffered a torn ACL midway through Seattle’s 14-9 victory in St. Louis on Monday, and will now miss the rest of the year.

Rice was the Seahawks’ third-leading receiver with 231 yards on 15 catches through Monday’s game — a disappointing first half of the season for a No. 1 wideout with one of the league’s more expensive contracts. Since joining the Hawks for 2011 as a sought-after free agent, having just broken out for 1,312 yards on 83 catches with the Vikings in 2009, Rice has arguably failed to live up to the expectations of his five-year, $41 million salary deal.

But the Seahawks have remained confident in Rice, who has come through with several big-time plays over the past two seasons. Fresh in the mind still is his 46-yard, game-winning touchdown catch against the Patriots last season, and he was on the receiving end of QB Russell Wilson’s most impressive something-out-of-nothing play this year when Rice caught Wilson’s 31-yard pass under pressure and took it to the end zone in Arizona.

“He’s the guy we’ve gone to for a number of years here,” Carroll said of Rice. “We trust the heck out of him.”

To account for Lockette’s promotion from the practice squad, the Seahawks on Wednesday also re-signed receiver Josh Lenz to the scout team, the organization announced.